By Joyce Pa?ares and Roy Pelovello

LAWMAKERS crossed party lines and stood behind the baselines law as Malaca?ang said it is ready to defend the newly-signed statute, including the provision that classifies the Kalayaan Island Group (Spratlys) and the Scarborough Shoals as ?a regime of islands under the Republic of the Philippines.?

The Chinese embassy in Manila immediately issued a statement saying the inclusion of Huangyan Island and some islands and reefs of Nansha Islands in the baseline law as Philippine territory is ?illegal, invalid? and totally unacceptable.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the government is standing by Presidential Decree 1596 issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos declaring Spratlys as part of the Philippine territory.

?It has been converted into a municipality under the province of Palawan, and therefore we claim it as Philippine territory,? Ermita said.

Ermita said that Beijing should understand that the country was only complying with the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, even as he acknowledged that the protest lodged by the Chinese embassy in Manila was to be expected.

?The People?s Republic of China has indisputable sovereignty over these islands and their adjacent waters,? the embassy statement read.

President Arroyo signed the baselines law, or Republic Act 9522, on Tuesday, ahead of the May 13 deadline imposed by the UN for countries to define their territorial waters and extended continental shelf.

At the House of Representatives, Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco said that China ?should play cool and allow the normal process of resolving this to take place and we should not allow ourselves to be intimidated.?

Cuenco said he does not know where China?s complaint is coming from as the Kalayaan group and the shoal were not included in the baseline.

?We only reiterated our claim over those islands by designating them as regime of islands. That?s allowed under Article 121 of Unclos [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas],? he said in a statement.

Opposition lawmaker, Muntinlupa Rep. Rufino Biazon (LP) noted that China?s reaction is meant to protect its own interest.

?This is an act of Congress and is already signed by the President [into law]. I think we should stand up to this, anyway we are complying with the Unclos so I don?t think we would have any problems [with it],? Biazon said.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said: ?I think we should uphold Philippine sovereignty, anyway other countries would always complain for their own self-interest.?

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez (Kampi) said the Philippines should defend its territorial claims. ?We might not have the military strength to back up the soft word with a big stick but I think the rest of the world would have sympathy for us.?

Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez (Kampi) said the law was crafted in accordance with international laws and that ?we are not staking claim on what is not ours.?

Pangasinan Rep. Arthur Celeste (Kampi), chairman of the House committee on national defense and security, said China?s protest is understandable and expected.